Update: Frank Darabont to Rewrite the 'Godzilla' Reboot

Update: The Godzilla remake has caused a bit of commotion in the movie-news cycle recently -- some bad, some good. First, producers Dan Lin (who is quoted in the original story below) and Roy Lee are leaving the project. Drew McWeeny at HitFix broke that news last night, but he insisted that the movie was still planning to film in March without their involvement.

Now other sources have added to that story, though, and the picture has changed a bit. Lin and Lee, the pair responsible for bringing the film to Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. in the first place, are not leaving the project amicably. Deadline further affirms that their departure won't necessarily stop the movie from getting made, but that it may tie up the studios' lawyers for a while considering the duo reportedly left over a financial dispute.

But producers leaving the project isn't what makes this post worth updating. That honor belongs to Frank Darabont. The Shawshank Redemption writer-director has been brought aboard to do the final rewrite on the film. He'll be working based off of a script by previous writer Max Borenstein, and while we have no idea what kind of a state that script was in, we're excited to know Darabont's involved. He's one of Hollywood's true film geeks, and hopefully that means this is indeed more than just a studio cashing in on a well-known brand.

Original Story:

Godzilla was one of the only true surprises at this year's Comic-Con. Though we already knew that Monsters director Gareth Edwards had been hired to direct the remake, no one was expecting Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures to have any footage at the year's biggest marketing expo, so when the teaser trailer/test footage did hit, it hit with a bang.

However, Godzilla's presence at the SDCC didn't mean the film was actually getting made anytime soon. It was essentially just a proof of concept, and in the month's since the film's been on radio silence. Dan Lin, one of its producers, recently gave Collider an update on the project, though, and it's mighty good news for anyone who was blown away by the presentation at Comic-Con:

We’re planning to film in March. We are in deep preproduction. Gareth [Edwards] has really mapped out his vision for the movie, you saw the teaser, but Gareth thanks to Thomas Tull’s help he took over a whole stage on the Warner Bros. lot and not only showed the teaser you saw, he had some models built of Godzilla, he had art decorated all over the soundstage, he had pre-vis of some of the big action sequences in the movie. So we’re in deep preproduction and Gareth’s vision of the movie is really exciting it’s a true reboot of Godzilla. And you saw from the Comic-Con footage it is a grounded, realistic version of Godzilla. What would happen if Godzilla came into our world today?

Honestly, I'm not sure a "grounded, realistic version" is necessary. Who actually watches a Godzilla movie and thinks, "Man, if only this movie about the giant, mutated lizard spawn of nuclear fallout were more realistic"? But realistic and gritty is kind of Legendary Pictures MO at this point (just look at The Dark Knight and Man of Steel), and their track record is solid enough that we're excited to see what that actually means.

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